I will be presenting a poster in a few weeks but have no experience with them. I've seen and given plenty of talks, read and written papers, but I have never made or even seen a poster in pure mathematics. Googling I was able to find LaTeX templates but was unable to find any examples or tips on presenting pure mathematics in a poster format. So what experience and examples does the math.SE community have with posters in pure mathematics topics?

1 Answer
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Since most of book covers on research mathematics is intentionally kept sober, to make a poster you may want to keep it simple yet not too boring. Also, it depends on the subject, audience, medium and budget.

Some tips:

keep it simple or to borrow the term: minimalistic

Visual wordplay or pun (as long as it is not overdone) OR, allusion to artwork such as Magritte or Escher if you are dealing with a topic that is self-referential, but avoid being cliche. Since mathematics is hotbed for symbols and logos, you can alter the font to mold into an object. The zero-sharp, zero-dagger, club suit, diamond suit, etc. Example, a bird morphing from "w" (the smallercase Greek omega letter)

You can also use an equation in a Rebus style such as the much abused meme of $i$, complex number and irrationality. Although memes can be rather cheap humor, you can browse to keep ideas flowing. This cartoon was quite interesting. (It can also be a simple Euler's identity with the tagline: Thus God exists.) Also, try to make a campaign - to borrow advertising term- so that you keep one constraint, eg: Thus God exist and you show mathematical equations such as the the one already mentioned, Kurt Goedel's proof, etcetera. Only caveat: keep it simple and connect in a non-sequiter manner. If you show the image of two balls from one of Banach-Tarski paradox, your tagline could be something of the nature such as: Never a boring day at the classroom.

Probably a historical image in a monotone shade either a sketch of the mathematician if he is obscure or of the university or locale

Keep in mind of that if it is posted on a bullet inboard, passerby will have very short span to notice it, so it cannot be too deep to "get it"

Another idea could be "ambient"-a term in advertising, where you use the surrounding to prove a point, such as a life-size ballerina image around revolving door. Stickers on calendars, numpad on phone, mirror, trees can be ways to spread the message. Taglines like: Average person sees a tree, a number theorist sees the sequence: 1 1 2 3 5... or, Average person sees an coffee, but a topologist sees a a donut. (The last one is cliche, but for illustration purpose).

I think these are nice ideas and examples, but on their own are not enough for a poster aimed at research mathematicians. A statement or visual explanation of your theorem is probably a good idea.
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user108903Jan 21 '13 at 9:17